Science / Nature

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The Wildflowers of Ireland
€16.95
Description
Discover the fascinating world of Ireland’s diverse and astonishing collection of native wildflowers. This new edition reflects the many changes to our botanical knowledge since The Wildflowers of Ireland was first published in 2014. There’s updated information on the distribution of native wildflowers, along with more than 90 additional species, all beautifully photographed by the author.

For ease of identification, the species are divided into colour categories and within each category the species are grouped by, for example, the number of petals in the flower or whether the species carries its flowers in a cluster or a spike. In easily understood terminology, focus is put on the main identifying features of each plant, by colour, size, shape of flower, leaf, habitat, flowering season, and where in Ireland it might be found. This is a must for enthusiasts of all ages and levels of experience.

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The Good Ancestor
€15.50
How can we be good ancestors?

From the first seeds sown thousands of years ago, to the construction of the cities we still inhabit, to the scientific discoveries that have ensured our survival, we are the inheritors of countless gifts from the past. Today, in an age driven by the tyranny of the now, with 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button commanding our attention, we rarely stop to consider how our actions will affect future generations. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises, the call for long-term thinking grows every day – but what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it? In The Good Ancestor, leading public philosopher Roman Krznaric argues that there is still hope.

From the pyramids to the NHS, humankind has always had the innate ability to plan for posterity and take action that will resonate for decades, centuries, even millennia to come. If we want to become good ancestors, now is the time to recover and enrich this imaginative skill. The Good Ancestor reveals six profound ways in which we can all learn to think long-term, exploring how we can reawaken oft-neglected but uniquely human talents like ‘cathedral thinking’ that expand our time horizons and sharpen our foresight.

Drawing on radical solutions from around the world, Krznaric celebrates the innovators who are reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.

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Madhouse at the End of the Earth
€17.95
The harrowing, survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly wrong, with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter

August 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship’s crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness.

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50 Things to Do by the Sea
€15.95
Description

A beautifully presented, practical gift guide for all surf seekers. Explained with fascinating, easy-to-understand commentary from surfer and scientist Easkey Britton, each guide helps you soak up maximum vitamin sea. The book is divided into six main sections – each filled with exercises, ideas and fun facts to help you reconnect with your oceanic roots and create special moments by the sea…

Reading the Sea – watch waves, move with the tides, understand rips and currents, getting to know the sea and your limits. What the Sea Does for Us – appreciate the food, feel-good factors, and even medicines that the sea has to offer. Plus learn about its fundamental role in climate control.

We are Ocean – explore the multi-sensory environment the sea has to offer. The Power of the Sea to Heal – from seaweed and ocean plasma to social change and ocean therapy. The Sea is Calling – try your hand at beach combing, wave play, rockpooling, bird watching, searching for jellyfish and bioluminescence and swimming in the sea.

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Embracing Change
€8.00
Description

This year has demonstrated how quickly our lives can change completely without warning. But every day we face change – whether it’s small changes such as an unscheduled meeting or plans going awry, to bigger changes such as a change of job or coping with the loss of a loved one. Our lives are constantly moving and we, in turn, must move with them.

In his latest book, bestselling author Dr Harry Barry shows us how to not only cope with change but learn in the process, and therefore grow and develop as a human being. Dr Barry, with the benefit of over thirty-five-years-experience as a family doctor assisting people in crisis, shares the practical tools and techniques required to manage change effectively and live your life to the fullest. Revealing how to become the ultimate pragmatist – accepting that there is no such thing as the perfect solution, just the best solution one can find at that moment in time.

Embracing Change is a practical, compassionate companion for anyone looking to boost their resilience, adapt to life’s challenges, and by smoothly navigating through them, reach calmer waters.

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Diary of a Young Naturalist
€15.00
‘This diary chronicles the turning of my world, from spring to winter, at home, in the wild, in my head.’

Evocative, raw and lyrical, this startling debut explores the natural world through the eyes of Dara McAnulty, an autistic teenager coping with the uprooting of home, school, and his mental health, while pursuing his life as a conservationist and environmental activist. Shifting from intense darkness to light, recalling his sensory encounters in the wild – with blackbirds, whooper swans, red kites, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, Irish hares and more – McAnulty reveals worlds we have neglected to see, in a stunning world of nature writing that is a future classic.

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Irish Birds
€18.95
An easy-to-use, fully illustrated guide to the birds of Ireland This easy-to-use, full-colour guide describes and illustrates 178 of the most commonly spotted birds in Ireland. Specially designed for people with a general interest in birds,the species have been carefully selected to include those that the non-specialist birdwatcher is most likely to see. Usefully, birds are grouped together according to where they are most likely to be seen: in gardens, parks and buildings; farmland and hedgerows; woodland and scrubland; moorland and uplands; and freshwater or coastal areas, with background information given about each of these habitats.

Essential identification characteristics are given for each species, along with clear illustrations. There are also notes on distribution, numbers and migration for each species, and general pages for groups like thrushes, sparrows and finches will help you to distinguish between similar species. With definitive text, up-to-date distribution maps and superb illustrations, this book is the ultimate field guide to Irish birds, essential on every bookshelf and birdwatching trip.

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Braiding Sweetgrass
€13.95
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings – asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass – offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

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Wild Woods
€15.95
Richard Nairn has spent a lifetime studying – and learning from – nature. When an opportunity arose for him to buy a small woodland filled with mature native trees beside a fast-flowing river, he set about understanding all its moods and seasons, discovering its wildlife secrets and learning how to manage it properly. Wildwoods is a fascinating account of his journey over a typical year.

Along the way, he uncovers the ancient roles of trees in Irish life, he examines lost skills such as coppicing and he explores new uses of woodlands for forest schools, foraging and rewilding. Ultimately, Wildwoods inspires all of us to pay attention to what nature can teach us. ‘A book to inspire anyone who wants Ireland to grow more Irish trees.’ Michael Viney

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Never Mind The B*ll*cks, Here’s The Science
€24.95
Description
In his fascinating and thought-provoking new book, Professor Luke O’Neill, one of the leading voices of authority during the COVID-19 pandemic, grapples with life’s biggest questions and tells us what science has to say about them:Do we have control over our lives?Can we escape working in bullshit jobs?Must we vaccinate our children?Are men and women’s brains different?Will we destroy the planet?Covering topics from global pandemics to gender, addiction to euthanasia, Luke’s trademark easy wit and clever pop-culture references deconstruct the science to make complex questions accessible. Arriving at science’s definitive answers to some of the most controversial topics human beings have to grapple with, Never Mind the B#ll*ocks is a celebration of science and hard facts in a time of fake news and sometimes unhelpful groupthink.

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The Lost Spells
€17.50
Dazzlingly beautiful and wonderfully inventive, discover the magical new book from the creators of bestselling, critically acclaimed literary phenomenon, The Lost Words . . .

‘Luminously beautiful. An amulet in dark times, to be carried like a talisman out into the world, where it is very much needed’ Dara McAnulty. Kindred in spirit to The Lost Words but fresh in its form, The Lost Spells is a pocket-sized treasure that introduces a beautiful new set of natural spell-poems and artwork by beloved creative duo Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Each “spell” conjures an animal, bird, tree or flower — from Barn Owl to Red Fox, Grey Seal to Silver Birch, Jay to Jackdaw — with which we share our lives and landscapes.

Moving, joyful and funny, The Lost Spells above all celebrates a sense of wonder, bearing witness to nature’s power to amaze, console and bring joy. Written to be read aloud, painted in brushstrokes that call to the forest, field, riverbank and also to the heart, The Lost Spells summons back what is often lost from sight and care, teaching the names of everyday species, and inspiring its readers to attention, love and care. Praise for The Lost Words: ‘Gorgeous to look at and to read.

Give it to a child to bring back the magic of language’ Jeanette Winterson, Guardian ‘Breathtaking, magical . . Jackie Morris has created something that you could spend all day looking at’ New Statesman. ‘Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris have made a thing of astonishing beauty’ Observer

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Collins Complete Guide to Irish Wildlife
€22.50
Description
The essential photographic guide to Ireland’s wildlife. Collins Complete Irish Wildlife describes almost all the mammals, birds, fish and butterflies of Ireland likely to be encountered by the keen amateur naturalist, as well as all the common and widespread flowers, trees and shrubs. With over 1,000 colour photographs, this comprehensive guide illustrates every species described.

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Entangled Life
€17.95
Description

‘A dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing book. I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer’ Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland

The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.

Neither plant nor animal, they are found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies.

They can be microscopic, yet also account for the largest organisms ever recorded. They enabled the first life on land, can survive unprotected in space and thrive amidst nuclear radiation. In fact, nearly all life relies in some way on fungi.

These endlessly surprising organisms have no brain but can solve problems and manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision.

In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. Their ability to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the ‘Wood Wide Web’, is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.

Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into a spectacular and neglected world, and shows that fungi provide a key to understanding both the planet on which we live, and life itself.

‘One of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you. Astounding’ Helen MacDonald, author of H Is for Hawk

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Underland
€16.00
Description

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2019WINNER OF THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020’You’d be crazy not to read this book’ The Sunday TimesA Guardian Best Book of the 21st CenturyFrom the internationally bestselling, prize-winning author of Landmarks, The Lost Words and The Old WaysIn Underland, Robert Macfarlane takes us on a journey into the worlds beneath our feet. From the ice-blue depths of Greenland’s glaciers, to the underground networks by which trees communicate, from Bronze Age burial chambers to the rock art of remote Arctic sea-caves, this is a deep-time voyage into the planet’s past and future. Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, Underland is a work of huge range and power, and a remarkable new chapter in Macfarlane’s long-term exploration of landscape and the human heart.

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Ireland Through Birds
€16.95
In Search of Ireland’s Most Elusive Birds

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Ireland’s Garden Birds
€16.95
An essential companion for bird lovers and gardeners alike since it was first published, this highly successful guide to identifying garden birds has now been fully updated with the latest information and statistics.

Highlighting a range of plants and planting schemes that support wildlife, it provides expert advice on making your garden a haven for birds.

Learn everything you need to know about all the birds you’re most likely to see from your window, how to attract them into your garden and how to care for them.

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